This is from memory, so correct me if I'm wrong... In the original Tomato firmware WPA2 did not work in WDS, period. I believe this was due to a bug in the wireless driver. Unfortunately I have no idea whether this was ever fixed or if the behaviour carried over to ND-based builds.

I was using my main router as both WDS and AP, and the best solution was therefore to choose WPA/WPA2, and set the WDS bridge to WPA. This allowed clients to connect with WPA2, and the bridge to operate with the highest level of encryption available.

Im using E3000 and Victeks latest build with WPA2/AES works without a hitch...I have tested both bands and no problems here with WDS ...nothing fancy in config the defaults will work...if you have a dual band router you won't be able to do WDS with both bands as it will lock up the router but 1 radio works fine.
I have been using WDS for years and it doesn't take more than a minute for the routers to link up...if the secondary router loses power it reconnects without issues...I can reboot either router at any time and they link back up in no time...works for me

WDS and WPA2 work fine in Tomato with multiple recent Toastman and Shibby firmwares (versions from the past year). Haven't tried WDS with Victek's mod.

Failing to create a link has a few troubleshooting steps:
- manually re-enter MAC addresses, supposedly cut and paste misbehaves (doesn't make sense to me, but others have said this)
- same security settings on each unit
- STP not needed unless you have a redundant setup (usually should try to disable settings that aren't needed)
- NVRAM erase before you start
- simultaneous reboot or simultaneous turning on radio (e.g. check noise floor on both routers simultaneously). This is usually the issue for first timers.
- wait. It takes a few minutes for the link to set up.

WDS is most likely to work when the hardware and wireless drivers are the same. Check driver versions and consider changing firmwares to match the drivers if none of the above fixes the problem.

Cut & paste can result in invisible characters being entered in the field. I normally paste into Notepad or the Run command (off the start menu) as an intermediary step to get rid of them, or at least make them visible enough to not copy them out of Notepad/Run.

PureText only removes rich formatting from text. This includes the font face, font style (bold, italics, etc.), font color, paragraph styles (left/right/center aligned), margins, character spacing, bullets, subscript, superscript, tables, charts, pictures, embedded objects, etc. However, it does not modify the actual text. It will not remove or fix new-lines, carriage returns, tabs, or other white-space. It will not fix word-wrap or clean up your paragraphs. If you copy the source code of a web page to the clipboard, it is not going to remove all the HTML tags. If you copy text from an actual web page (not the source of the page), it will remove the formatting.

PureText is basically equivalent to opening Notepad, doing a PASTE, followed by a SELECT-ALL, and then a COPY. The benefit of PureText is performing all these actions with a single Hot-Key and having the result pasted into the current window automatically.